


Pink and Blue

by corv (2hoots)



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, and theyre both trans, ash is autistic and gnc because i do what i want, but not like particularly aged up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-08-09 22:44:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20125066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/2hoots/pseuds/corv
Summary: It was an early September morning, the sky blue and the air crisp, when Serena spotted Ash outside a Lumiose boutique.(Sometimes, a dress is just a dress.)





	Pink and Blue

**Author's Note:**

> set like a couple years after the end of kalos. not shippy, sorry! nothing against it, i just think their dynamic as friends is more interesting. 
> 
> also, there's gender stuff. brief discussion of misgendering but very positive overall, and everyone mentioned is cool about everything (because it's pokemon... like, do you really think there would be transphobes in pokemon??? cmon)

It was an early September morning, the sky blue and the air crisp, when Serena spotted Ash outside a Lumiose boutique.

The sight was unexpected. She stopped at the corner of the cobbled street, squinting slightly. It was _definitely_ him, right? A black-haired trainer with a Pikachu on their shoulder wasn't a _common_ sight, exactly, but she had no idea if he was even _in_ Kalos at the moment, last she'd heard he was on the other side of the world - but then the wind caught his hair, pulled it back to reveal the brown of his skin, the warm eyes nestled in the curve of his cheek, and she knew it couldn't have been anyone else. Braixen was already running over with a cry; Serena heard him laugh as small arms were flung around his midsection. Then he looked up, searching for its trainer, and their eyes met.

Five minutes later, they were sitting at a café down the street.

"Yeah, I just flew in a few days ago!" Ash was saying. Underneath the table, Pikachu and Braixen were playing a game of tag, and Ash paused to lift his heels as Pikachu scurried beneath them. "Bonnie started her journey recently. She'll be coming back to Lumiose soon to challenge the gym, and I'm between destinations at the moment, so I thought I'd come visit! Man, I'm so excited to battle her!" He clenched his fist above the table. "Clemont was telling me about her new team, and they all seem super strong!"

Serena dismissed the childish pang of jealousy that Ash hadn't come to visit _her_, and beamed. "Wow! Guess I'll have to stick around for that, too." She nodded to Braixen. "We're only passing through Lumiose, but it won't do any harm to spend a few more days here!"

"Mm." Ash paused for a second, making a face like he hadn't quite realised how cold his iced coffee would be. When the chill had passed, he asked, "Yeah, what are you doing here, anyway? Last I heard you were in Hoenn, right?" His gaze was lingering somewhere around her hairline, although Serena knew him well enough to not take the lack of eye contact personally. "Your hair's different."

Serena bought a hand up to her cheek, teasing at the ringlets that hung there. "I've been changing it up a lot! Hoenn's Contest Spectaculars are so different. I've found it's important to have some flexibility with your style, you know?" Her eyes fell to Braixen, and a feeling of warmth flooded her chest. "We all finished competing in this year's cycle a few weeks ago, and the next one hasn't started yet, so I thought I'd come home for a while."

"I heard you guys made it to the finals, though!" Ash gushed. "That's so awesome, congrats!"

Serena flushed, and ducked her head at the praise. "It took a lot of hard work, but yeah! I couldn't be prouder of Braixen and the others. They're all real hard workers, y'know?"

"I'll say!" Ash said, in a motion that was almost a full-body nod. Then, "Will you be heading back there for the next cycle?"

Serena opened her mouth.

The word she'd been planning to say - the one on the tip of her tongue - was _yes_. She and her team had all been working so hard for this; she was certain that this time, the victory would be within her reach.

But something was giving her pause. She didn't know what. Maybe the nostalgia was coming back to bite her; but there was a tiny little voice suddenly piping up in the back of her head, saying _wait_. It was the kind of doubt that she'd once ignored. But going on her journey, meeting Ash and Clemont and Bonnie, had changed that. She knew better now.

So what she instead said, slowly, was "I'm not sure."

She let the sentence sit, thinking it over in the space between them. Ash fished out an ice cube from his drink, crunching it idly. Then he shrugged.

"Well, you got time to make your mind up. But 'meantime," he grinned, "it'd be great if you could hang around here a little longer. I bet Bonnie'd love to see you!"

His grin was as infectious as it had always been, and Serena huffed a laugh. She glanced at Braixen, who gave a cheerful yip.

"I think we could manage that," she agreed.

Ash had never been one to sit still for long, and so once drinks had been drunk they found themselves back outside, walking and talking. The shop that Ash had been standing in front of passed by, and Serena, realising she hadn't got a proper look at it earlier, paused.

"The Bluebell Boutique," she read. Her eyes slid down to the window display, and she gasped. "Oh, cute! Were you thinking of getting something for Bonnie?"

There wasn't an immediate response. When she turned to look at Ash he startled slightly, looking almost guilty. "Oh! Uh, yeah! Um." He glanced away. "No, actually."

When he looked back up, it was to something in the window display. Serena followed his gaze. There, between the bows and frills that had caught her eye, was a midnight blue pinafore dress over a white blouse. The fabric had a satin sheen to it, and from the corner of her eye Serena could see Ash's hands twitch slightly. _Oh_, she thought. For _him_.

She quickly schooled her expression of surprise into a neutral one. Ash looked about ready to bolt, and the last thing she wanted was to upset him in any way. At the same time, though, he didn't be able to tear himself away from the shop window display. There was a kind of hesitant longing in his eyes - like he was looking at something he wanted but didn't feel like he really deserved - that cut straight across Serena's heartstrings.

She stepped away, towards the entrance to the shop, and tipped her head towards it. "Did you want to go in?"

Ash rocked back on his heels, looking between her and the dress with something approaching alarm. Pikachu muttered something to him, and then pushed its cheek into his own. That seemed to be enough to spur him on, and Serena smiled at him as she pushed the door open.

The fitting rooms were at the back of the shop, and Serena waited outside the curtain as Ash went in. It had taken them a while to find the right size - Ash, of course, had no idea what his measurements were, but Serena had made what she was sure was a pretty good guess. She sat patiently, scrolling through her social media feed, until there was the shuffle of footsteps.

"Uh..." The curtain swayed, bunching slightly at one end as if someone had taken a handful of it. Ash's voice was barely above a whisper. "You - promise you won't laugh, ok?"

Serena got to her feet, frowning. "Of course I won't," she said, as gently as possible. There was the sound of him taking a deep breath. Then, hesitantly, the curtain was pulled aside.

Overall, it was a pretty good fit. They'd gone a little larger to compensate for Ash's height; Serena could see several places where the fabric needed taking in, most notably at the bust. But other than that, it was as good as off-the-shelf got; the fabric didn't stretch or pull anywhere, and the cuffs of the blouse sat comfortably around his wrists. She'd just been thinking about whether she had a thread colour in her sewing kit to match it when Ash cleared his throat.

"Does it look... okay?"

Serena pressed her hands together and beamed.

"It looks great! The fit will need adjusting a little, but that should be an easy job, and the colour really suits you!" Her hand hesitated near his elbow, and when he offered it she led him to stand in front of the mirror.

"The important thing," she added, stepping back, "is what _you_ think. How does it feel? Is the fit okay?"

Ash stared at himself for a moment. Then he reached down, grabbing two handfuls of the skirt fabric, and wrinkled his nose in a smile.

"Yeah," he said. "The fabric's really nice. It's so soft!"

He laughed as Pikachu, who had been patiently safeguarding his hat up until now, scurried up his back and across his shoulders. "Hey, knock it off! C'mon, if you get hairs all over this, they're not gonna be happy."

"That won't be a problem if you buy it," Serena mentioned slyly.

Ash paused trying to shoo Pikachu away. Then he scooped it off his shoulders, instead holding it tight to his chest as he turned to look at himself in the mirror again.

"I guess," he murmured. "You really think it looks good?"

"Sure I do!" Serena tipped her head. "I'm kinda surprised, though. I didn't think you were into fashion!"

Ash gave a laugh at this. "Nah, I'm not, really. I don't know anything about it - not like you," he said, an earnest reverence creeping into his voice. "I usually just wear whatever feels comfortable, y'know? I don't really think about it."

He looked down, and gave a little shuffle, apparently enjoying the way the skirt billowed about his knees. "But dresses are... kinda nice? Some days trousers feel bad or itchy, but skirts are so _different_. And I happened to see the one in the window, and I just started thinking about how soft the fabric probably was, an' stuff."

He shifted his grip on Pikachu, freeing up one hand to idly rub circles in its fur. "But any time I wore a dress before, people sometimes looked at me all weird. Or they thought I was a girl." His brow furrowed in a frown. "I hated that. I'm _not_ a girl. An' besides, I don't get that, 'cos they're just clothes, right?"

"Sure!" Serena chimed. "If Marc Jean-Pierre can wear a skirt for his photoshoot in _Lumiose Lifestyle_ and absolutely kill it, so can you, right?"

Ash was giving her a blank look. She waved her hand. "Alright, bad example. But you're absolutely right. They're just clothes."

She caught a glimpse of her own reflection in the mirror, of the ringlets framing her face, and idly reached up to brush them aside. They had been a spur-of-the-moment decision, one of the many looks and styles she'd tried on like new hats, new faces. There had been a constant pressure to _reinvent_ herself in Hoenn, she realised. She'd left Kalos so determined to try and become someone, _something_ else, to figure out the right kind of woman to be. It had been liberating and exhausting, showing a new face to everyone she met. She wondered how many of them had actually been her.

"I feel like... clothes and accessories, and," she spun her hand, "_presentation,_ it's really something that varies from person to person." She remembered, when she was little, how she'd cried and cried when her mum had wanted to cut her hair. She'd been so confused back then, but this was something she _knew_, she had to cling to. _Girls have long hair_. But then she'd cut it herself, and... it had been fine. The world hadn't ended, and her travelling companions hadn't rejected her for not being _enough_. "You should wear what you want to, but... you don't have to wear what you feel you _need_ to, you know? There's no wrong way to be a boy. To be _anyone_. It's not something you're going to lose your guy license for just because you like wearing dresses."

Ash gave a shy grin. "So you don't think it's weird?"

"Of course not! I'm not going to treat you any differently because of what you wear, and neither are Clemont or Bonnie." Serena paused, then held up a finger. "Actually, scratch that, Bonnie is _definitely_ going to ask if you want to come dress shopping now."

Ash made a face, and managed to hold it for about a second before bursting out with a laugh. "Aw, man. What am I getting myself into?"

"Your _mom_ makes all your clothes for you, Ash!" Serena elbowed him, and rolled her eyes. "You can't be expected to have _taste_! We have to save you from yourself!"

"_Hey!_"

(About two and a half months later, Serena is waiting backstage at the Showcase and brushing out Sylveon's fur when her gear buzzes.

Ash has sent her a picture. In frame are himself and - Serena does a double take - the _champion of Sinnoh_, sitting on a rock somewhere sunny. They both have ice-creams; Cynthia is using her free hand to flash the camera a peace sign, and when Serena notices that Ash is wearing the sundress that she and him and Bonnie all picked out together, something warm settles in her chest.)

**Author's Note:**

> unbeta'd and basically unedited from my first draft so excuse any spelling mistakes! might come back and edit this later but for now have this


End file.
